Steam locomotive (2)

Cylinders

Early steam locomotives had two cylinders, one either side, and this practice persisted as the simplest arrangement. The cylinders could be mounted between the main frames (known as 'inside' cylinders), or mounted outside the frames and driving wheels ('outside' cylinders). Inside cylinders are driven by cranks built into the driving axle; outside cylinders are driven by cranks on extensions to the driving axles.

Later designs employed three or four cylinders, mounted both inside and outside the frames, for a more even power cycle and greater power output.^[35] This was at the expense of more complicated valve gear and increased maintenance requirements. In some cases the third cylinder was added 'inside' simply to allow for smaller diameter outside cylinders, and hence reduce the width of the locomotive for use on lines with a restricted loading gauge, for example the SR K1 and U1 classes.

Most British express passenger locomotives built from about 1930 to 1950 were 4-6-0 or 4-6-2 types with three or four cylinders (e.g., GWR 6000 Class, LMS Coronation Class, SR Merchant Navy Class, LNER Gresley Class A3). From 1951, all but one of the 999 new British Rail standard class steam locomotives of all types from express passenger and heavy freight to smaller mixed traffic tank locomotives used 2-cylinder configurations for easier maintenance.

Valve gear

Numerous technological advances improved the steam engine. Early locomotives used simple valve gear that gave full power in either forward or reverse.^[22] Soon Stephenson valve gear allowed the driver to control cut-off; this was largely superseded by Walschaerts valve gear and similar patterns. Early locomotive designs using slide valves and outside admission were relatively easy to construct, but inefficient and prone to wear.^[22] Eventually, slide valves were superseded by inside admission piston valves, though there were attempts to apply poppet valves (common by then on stationary engines) in the 20th century. Stephenson valve gear was generally placed within the frame and was difficult to access for maintenance; later patterns applied outside the frame, were readily visible and maintained.

Compounding

U-127 Lenin's Locomotive a 4-6-0 oil burning De GlehnCompound locomotive, at the Museum of the Moscow Railway at Paveletsky Rail Terminal

From 1876, compound locomotives came on the scene, which used the engine's steam twice. There were many compound locomotives especially where long periods of continuous efforts were needed. Compounding was an essential ingredient of the quantum leap in power achieved by André Chapelon's rebuilds from 1929. A common application was to articulated locomotives, the most common being that of Anatole Mallet in which the high-pressure stage was attached directly to the boiler frame; in front of this was pivoted a low-pressure engine on its own frame, taking the exhaust from the rear engine.^[36]

Articulated locomotives

More powerful locomotives also tend to be longer, but long, rigid-framed designs are impractical for the tight curves frequently found on narrow gauge railways. Various designs of articulated locomotives were developed to overcome this problem. The Mallet and the Garratt were the two most popular, both using a single boiler and two engines (sets of cylinders and driving wheels) – the Garratt having two power bogies, the Mallet having one. There were also a few examples of "triplex" locomotives that had a third engine under the tender. Both the front and tender engines were low-pressure compounded, though they could be operated simple (high-pressure) for starting off. Other, less common, variations included the Fairlie locomotive, which had two boilers back-to-back on a common frame, with two separate power bogies.

Duplex types

Duplex locomotives with two engines in one rigid frame were also tried, but were not notably successful. For example, the 4-4-4-4 Pennsylvania Railroad's T1 class, designed for very fast running, suffered recurring and ultimately unfixable slippage problems throughout their careers.^[37]

Geared locomotives

For uses where a high starting torque and low speed were required, the conventional direct drive approach was inadequate. "Geared" steam locomotives, such as the Shay, the Climax and the Heisler, were developed to meet this need on industrial, logging, mine and quarry railways. The common feature of these three types was the provision of reduction gearing and a drive shaft between the crankshaft and the driving axles. This arrangement allowed the engine to run at a much higher speed than the driving wheels, compared to the conventional design, where the ratio is 1:1.

Cab forward

In the United States on the Southern Pacific Railroad a series of cab forward locomotives had the cab and the firebox at the front of the locomotive and the tender behind the smokebox, so that the engine appeared to run backwards. This was only possible by using oil-firing. Southern Pacific selected this design to provide smoke-free breathing for the engine driver as they went through the SP's numerous mountain tunnels and snow sheds. Another variation was the Camelback locomotive with the cab halfway along the boiler. In England, Oliver Bulleid developed the SR Leader class locomotive during the nationalisation process in the late 1940s. The locomotive was heavily tested but several design faults (like coal firing and sleeve valves) meant this locomotive and the other part-built locomotives were scrapped. The cab-forward design was taken by Bulleid to Ireland when he moved to after nationalisation where he developed the 'turfburner'. This locomotive was more successful but was scrapped with the dieselisation of the Irish railways.

The only preserved cab forward locomotive is Southern Pacific 4294 in Sacramento, California, US.

In France, the three Heilmann locomotives were a cab forward design.

Steam turbines

Steam turbines were one of the experiments in improving the operation and efficiency of steam locomotives. Experiments with steam turbines using direct-drive and electrical transmissions, in different countries, proved mostly unsuccessful.^[20] The London, Midland and Scottish Railway also built Turbomotive, a largely successful attempt to prove the efficiency of steam turbines.^[20] Had it not been for the outbreak of World War II, more may have been built. The Turbomotive ran from 1935 to 1949, when it was rebuilt into a conventional locomotive because replacement of many parts was required, an uneconomical proposition for a 'one-off' locomotive. In the United States the Union Pacific, Chesapeake and Ohio and Norfolk & Western (N&W) railways all built turbine-electric locomotives. The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) also built turbine locos but with a direct-drive gearbox. However, all designs failed due to dust, vibration, design flaws or inefficiency at lower speeds. The last one in service was the N&W's, retired in January 1958. The only truly successful design was the TGOJ MT3, used for hauling iron ore from Grängesberg to the ports of Oxelösund. Technically well-working, only three were built. Two of them are saved in working order at museums in Sweden.

Hybrid power

Mixed power locomotives, utilising steam and diesel propulsion, have been produced in Russia, Britain and Italy.

Under severely unusual conditions (lack of coal, plenty of hydroelectricity) some locomotives in Switzerland were modified to use electricity to heat the boiler, making them electric-steam locomotives.^[38]

Fireless locomotive

Fireless locomotive

In a fireless locomotive the boiler is replaced by a steam accumulator which is charged with steam (actually water at high temperature well above the boiling point, 212 °F/100 °C) from a stationary boiler. Fireless locomotives were used where there was a high fire risk (e.g., in oil refineries), where cleanliness was important (e.g., in food factories) or where steam is readily available such as in processes where steam is either a by-product or is cheaply available e.g. paper mills and power stations. The water vessel ("boiler") is heavily insulated as is a fired locomotive. Until all the water has boiled away, the steam pressure does not drop except as the temperature drops. Another class of fireless locomotive is a compressed air locomotive.

Steam-electric locomotive

Heilmann locomotive No. 8001, Chemins de Fer de l'Ouest

A steam-electric locomotive is similar in concept to a diesel-electric locomotive, except that a steam engine is used to drive a generator instead of a diesel engine. Three such locomotives were built by the French engineer Jean Jacques Heilmann in the 1890s.

Manufacture

Most manufactured classes

The largest single class of steam locomotive in the world is the 0-10-0 Russian locomotive class E steam locomotive with around 11,000 manufactured both in Russia and other countries such as Czechoslovakia, Germany, Sweden, Hungary and Poland. The Russian locomotive class O numbered 9,129 locomotives built between 1890 and 1928. The German DRB Class 52 2-10-0 Kriegslok which consisted of approximate 7,000 units. The British GWR 5700 class numbered about 863 units. The DX class of the London and North Western Railway numbered 943 units, including 86 engines built for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.^[39]

United Kingdom

Great Western Railway No. 6833 Calcot Grange, a 4-6-0 Grange class steam locomotive, at Bristol Temple Meads railway station, Bristol, England. Note the Belpaire (square-topped) firebox.

Before the 1923 Grouping Act, the picture in the UK was mixed. The larger railway companies built locomotives in their own workshops but the smaller ones and industrial concerns ordered them from outside builders. A large market for outside builders was abroad because of the home-build policy exercised by the main railway companies. An example of a pre grouping works was the one at Melton Constable that maintained and built some of the locomotives for the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway. Other works included one at Boston (an early GNR building) and Horwich works.

Between 1923 and 1947, the "Big Four" railway companies (the Great Western Railway, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, the London and North Eastern Railway and the Southern Railway) all built most of their own locomotives. Generally speaking, they only bought locomotives from outside builders when their own works were fully occupied (or as a result of government-mandated standardisation during wartime).

From 1948, British Railways allowed the former "Big Four" companies (now designated as "Regions") to continue to build their own designs, but also created a range of standard locomotives which supposedly combined the best features from each region. Although a policy of "dieselisation" was adopted in 1955, BR continued to build new steam locomotives until 1960 (the last being named Evening Star).

Some independent manufacturers produced steam locomotives for a few more years, the last British-built industrial steam locomotive being constructed by Hunslet in 1971. Since then, a few specialised manufacturers have continued to produce small locomotives for narrow gauge and miniature railways, but as the prime market for these is the tourist and heritage railway sector, the demand for such locomotives is limited. In November 2008, a new build main line steam locomotive, the 60163 Tornado, was tested on UK mainlines for eventual charter and tour use.

Australia

The 200th steam locomotive built by Clyde Engineering (TF 1164) from the Powerhouse Museum collection

In Australia, Clyde Engineering of Sydney and also the Eveleigh Workshops built steam locomotives for the New South Wales Government Railways. These include the C38 class 4-6-2; the first five were built at Clyde with streamlining, the other 25 locomotives were built at Eveleigh (13) in Sydney, and Cardiff Workshops (12) near Newcastle. In Queensland, steam locomotives were locally constructed by Walkers. Similarly the South Australian state government railways also manufactured steam locomotives locally at Islington in Adelaide. The Victorian Railways constructed most of their locomotives at their Newport Workshops and Bendigo while in the early days locomotives were built at the Phoenix Foundry in Ballarat. Locomotives constructed at the Newport shops ranged from the nA class 2-6-2T built for the narrow gauge, up to the H class 4-8-4, the largest conventional locomotive ever to operate in Australia, which weighed 260 tons. However, the title of largest locomotive in Australia goes to the 263-ton NSWGR AD60 class 4-8-4+4-8-4 Garratt (Oberg:1975), which were built by Beyer-Peacock in the United Kingdom.

Sweden

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, most Swedish steam locomotives were manufactured in Britain. But later on, most steam locomotives were built by local factories including NOHAB in Trollhättan and ASJ in Falun. One of the most successful types was the class "B" (4-6-0), inspired by the Prussian class P8. Many of the Swedish steam locomotives were preserved during the Cold War in case of war. During the 1990s, these steam locomotives were sold to non-profit associations or abroad, which is why the Swedish class B, class S (2-6-4) and class E2 (2-8-0) locomotives can now be seen in Britain, the Netherlands, Germany and Canada.

United States

California Western Railroad #45 (builder #58045)), Built by Baldwin in 1924, number 45 is a 2-8-2 "Mikado" locomotive. It is still in use today on the Skunk Train

Railroad locomotive engines in the United States have nearly always been built in and for United States railroads with very few imports, except in the earliest days. This is true because of the basic differences of markets in the United States which initially had many small markets located large distances apart; much different than Europe's much higher density markets. Locomotives that were cheap and rugged and could go over large distances over cheaply built and maintained tracks were the early requirements. Once the manufacture of engines was established on a wide scale there was very little advantage to buying an engine somewhere else that would have to be customized anyway to fit the local requirements and track conditions. Improvements in engine design of both European and U.S. origin could be and were incorporated by manufacturers when they could be justified in a generally very conservative and slow changing market. With the notable exception of the USRA standard locomotives, set during World War I, in the United States, steam locomotive manufacture was always semi-customised. Railroads ordered locomotives tailored to their specific requirements, though basic design features were always present. Railroads developed some specific characteristics; for example, the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Great Northern had a preference for the Belpaire firebox,.^[40] In the United States, large-scale manufacturers constructed locomotives for nearly all rail companies, although nearly all major railroads had shops capable of heavy repairs and some railroads (for example, the Norfolk and Western Railway and the Pennsylvania Railroad, which had two erecting shops) constructed complete locomotives in their own shops.^{[citation needed]} Companies manufacturing locomotives in the US included Baldwin Locomotive Works, American Locomotive Company (Alco), and Lima Locomotive Works.

Steam locomotives required regular, and compared to a diesel-electric engine, frequent service and overhaul (often at government-regulated intervals in Europe and the U.S.) Many alterations and upgrades regularly occurred during overhauls. New appliances were added, unsatisfactory features removed, cylinders improved or replaced. Almost any part of the locomotive, including boilers, was replaced or upgraded. When the service or upgrades got too expensive the locomotive was traded off or retired.^{[citation needed]} On the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad two 2-10-2 locomotives were dismantled; the boilers were placed onto two new Class T 4-8-2 locomotives and the residue wheel machinery made a pair of Class U 0-10-0 switchers with new boilers. Union Pacific's fleet of 3-cylinder 4-10-2 engines were converted into two-cylinder engines in 1942, because of high maintenance problems.

Categorisation

The Gov. Stanford, a 4-4-0 (in Whyte notation) locomotive typical of 19th-century American practice

Steam locomotives are categorised by their wheel arrangement. The two dominant systems for this are the Whyte notation and UIC classification.

The Whyte notation, used in most English speaking and Commonwealth countries, represents each set of wheels with a number. These numbers typically represented the number of un-powered leading wheels, followed by the number of driving wheels (sometimes in several groups), followed by the number of un-powered trailing wheels. For example, a yard engine with only 4 drive wheels would be shown as a "0-4-0" wheel arrangement. A locomotive with a 4 wheel leading truck, followed by 6 drive wheels, and a 2 wheel trailing truck, would be classed as a "4-6-2". Different arrangements were given names which usually reflect the first usage of the arrangement; for instance the "Santa Fe" type (2-10-2) is so called because the first examples were built for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. These names were informally given and varied according to region and even politics.

The UIC classification is used mostly in European countries apart from the United Kingdom. It designates consecutive pairs of wheels (informally "axles") with a number for non-driving wheels and a capital letter for driving wheels (A=1, B=2, etc.) So a Whyte 4-6-2 designation would be an equivalent to a 2-C-1 UIC designation.

On many railroads, locomotives were organised into classes. These broadly represented locomotives which could be substituted for each other in service, but most commonly a class represented a single design. As a rule classes were assigned some sort of code, generally based on the wheel arrangement. Classes also commonly acquired nicknames, such as 'Pugs', representing notable (and sometimes uncomplimentary) features of the locomotives.^[41][42]

Performance

Measurement

In the steam locomotive era, two measures of locomotive performance were generally applied. At first, locomotives were rated by tractive effort This can be roughly calculated by multiplying the total piston area by 85% of the boiler pressure (a rule of thumb reflecting the slightly lower pressure in the steam chest above the cylinder) and dividing by the ratio of the driver diameter over the piston stroke. However, the precise formula is:

Tractive Effort is defined as the average force developed during one revolution of the driving wheels at the rail head.^[16] This is expressed as:

.

where d is bore of cylinder (diameter) in inches, s is cylinder stroke, in inches, P is boiler pressure in pound per square inch, D is driving wheel diameter in inches, c is a factor that depends on the effective cut-off.^[43] In the U.S. "c" is usually set at 0.85, but lower on engines that have maximum cutoff limited to 50-75%.

It is critical to appreciate the use of the term 'average', as not all effort is constant during the one revolution of the drivers for at some points of the cycle only one piston is exerting turning moment and at other points both pistons are working. Not all boilers deliver full power at starting and also the tractive effort decreases as the rotating speed increases.^[16]

Tractive effort is a measure of the heaviest load a locomotive can start or haul at very low speed over the ruling grade in a given territory.^[16]

However, as the pressure grew to run faster goods and heavier passenger trains, tractive effort was seen to be an inadequate measure of performance because it did not take into account speed.

Therefore in the 20th century, locomotives began to be rated by power output. A variety of calculations and formulas were applied, but in general railways used dynamometer cars to measure tractive force at speed in actual road testing.

British railway companies have been reluctant to disclose figures for drawbar horsepower and have usually relied on continuous tractive effort instead.

Relation to wheel arrangement

Whyte classification is connected to locomotive performance, but through a somewhat circuitous path. Given adequate proportions of the rest of the locomotive, power output is determined by the size of the fire, and for a bituminous coal-fuelled locomotive, this is determined by the grate area. Modern non-compound locomotives are typically able to produce about 40 drawbar horsepower per square foot of grate. Tractive force, as noted earlier, is largely determined by the boiler pressure, the cylinder proportions, and the size of the driving wheels. However, it is also limited by the weight on the driving wheels (termed "adhesive weight"), which needs to be at least four times the tractive effort.^[20]

The weight of the locomotive is roughly proportional to the power output; the number of axles required is determined by this weight divided by the axleload limit for the trackage where the locomotive is to be used. The number of driving wheels is derived from the adhesive weight in the same manner, leaving the remaining axles to be accounted for by the leading and trailing bogies.^[20] Passenger locomotives conventionally had two-axle leading bogies for better guidance at speed; on the other hand, the vast increase in the size of the grate and firebox in the 20th century meant that a trailing bogie was called upon to provide support. On the European continent, some use was made of several variants of the Bissel bogie in which the swivelling movement of a single axle truck controls the lateral displacement of the front driving axle (and in one case the second axle too). This was mostly applied to 8-coupled express and mixed traffic locomotives and considerably improved their ability to negotiate curves whilst restricting overall locomotive wheelbase and maximising adhesion weight.

As a rule, "shunting engines" (US "switching engines") omitted leading and trailing bogies, both to maximise tractive effort available and to reduce wheelbase. Speed was unimportant; making the smallest engine (and therefore smallest fuel consumption) for the tractive effort paramount. Driving wheels were small and usually supported the firebox as well as the main section of the boiler. Banking engines (US "helper engines") tended to follow the principles of shunting engines, except that the wheelbase limitation did not apply, so banking engines tended to have more driving wheels. In the U.S., this process eventually resulted in the Mallet type with its many driven wheels, and these tended to acquire leading and then trailing bogies as guidance of the engine became more of an issue.

As locomotive types began to diverge in the late 19th century, freight engine designs at first emphasised tractive effort, whereas those for passenger engines emphasised speed. Over time, freight locomotive size increased, and the overall number of axles increased accordingly; the leading bogie was usually a single axle, but a trailing truck was added to larger locomotives to support a larger firebox that could no longer fit between or above the driving wheels. Passenger locomotives had leading bogies with two axles, fewer driving axles, and very large driving wheels in order to limit the speed at which the reciprocating parts had to move.

In the 1920s the focus in the United States turned to horsepower, epitomised by the "super power" concept promoted by the Lima Locomotive Works, although tractive effort was still the prime consideration after World War I to the end of steam. Goods trains were to run faster; passenger locomotives needed to pull heavier loads at speed. In essence, the size of grate and firebox increased without changes to the remainder of the locomotive, requiring the addition of a second axle to the trailing truck. Freight 2-8-2s became 2-8-4s while 2-10-2s became 2-10-4s. Similarly, passenger 4-6-2s became 4-6-4s. In the United States this led to a convergence on the dual-purpose 4-8-4 and the 4-6-6-4 articulated configuration, which was used for both freight and passenger service.^[44] Mallet locomotives went through a similar transformation and evolved from bank engines into huge mainline locomotives with gargantuan fireboxes; their driving wheels being increased in size in order to allow faster running.

The end of steam in general use

The introduction of electric locomotives at the turn of the 20th century and later diesel-electric locomotives spelled the beginning of the end for steam locomotives, although that end was long in coming.^[45] As diesel power, more especially with electric transmission, became more reliable in the 1930s it gained a foothold in North America.^[46] The full changeover took place there during the 1950s. In continental Europe large-scale electrification had displaced steam power by the 1970s. Steam had in its favour familiar technology, adapted well to local facilities. It also consumed a wide variety of fuels; this led to its continued use in many countries to the end of the 20th century.

Steam engines have considerably less thermal efficiency than modern diesels, requiring constant maintenance and labour to keep them operational.^[47] Water is required at many points throughout a rail network and becomes a major problem in desert areas, as are found in some regions within the United States, Australia and South Africa. In other localities the local water is unsuitable. The reciprocating mechanism on the driving wheels of a two-cylinder single expansion steam locomotive tended to pound the rails (see "hammer blow"), thus requiring more maintenance. Raising steam from coal took a matter of hours which brought serious pollution problems. Coal-burning locomotives required fire cleaning and ash removal between turns of duty. This was all done in the open air by hand in deplorable working conditions. Diesel or electric locomotives, by comparison, drew benefit from new custom built servicing facilities. Finally, the smoke from steam locomotives was deemed objectionable; in fact, the first electric and diesel locomotives were developed to meet smoke abatement requirements,^[48] although this did not take into account the high level of invisible pollution in diesel exhaust smoke, especially when idling. It should also be remembered that the power for electric trains is, for the most part, derived from steam generated in a power station — often fuelled with coal.

U.S. decline

Northwestern Steel and Wire locomotive number 80, July 1964

Diesel locomotives began to appear in mainline service in the United States in the mid-1930s.^[49] The diesel reduced maintenance costs dramatically, while increasing locomotive availability. On the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad the new units delivered over 350,000 miles (560,000 km) a year, compared with about 120,000–150,000 for a mainline steam locomotive.^[20] World War II delayed dieselisation in the U.S., but the pace picked up in the 1950s.^{[citation needed]} 1960 is normally considered the last year for regular Class 1 main line standard gauge steam operations in the United States, with operations on the Grand Trunk Western, Illinois Central, Norfolk and Western, and Duluth Missabe and Iron Range Railroads,^[50] as well as Canadian Pacific operations in the state of Maine.^[51]

However, the Grand Trunk Western used some steam on regular passenger trains into 1961, the last occurring unannounced on trains 56 and 21 in the Detroit area on September 20, 1961 with 4-8-4 6323, one day before its flue time expired.^[52] The last standard gauge regular freight service steam by a class 1 railroad was on the isolated Leadville branch of the Colorado and Southern (Burlington Lines) October 11, 1962 with 2-8-0 641.^[53] Narrow gauge steam was used for freight service by the Denver and Rio Grande Western on the 250-mile (400 km) run from Alamosa, Colorado to Farmington, New Mexico via Durango until service ceased December 5, 1968.^[53] The Union Pacific is the only Class I railroad in the U.S. to have never completely dieselized, at least nominally. It has always had at least one operational steam locomotive, Union Pacific 844, on its roster.^[54] Some U.S. shortlines continued steam operations into the 1960s, and the Northwestern Steel and Wire mill in Sterling, Illinois, continued to operate steam locomotives until December 1980.^[55] The Silverton branch of the Denver and Rio Grande Western, which in 1981 became the tourist-carrying Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, continues to use steam locomotives, as it has since construction in 1881.^{[citation needed]}

British decline

British industrial steam in the 1970s: a Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn 0-4-0ST shunting coal wagons at Agecroft Power Station, Pendlebury, north of Manchester, in 1976

Trials of diesel locomotives and railcars began in Britain in the 1930s but made only limited progress. One problem was that British diesel locomotives were often seriously under-powered, compared with the steam locomotives against which they were competing.

After 1945, problems associated with post-war reconstruction and the availability of cheap domestic-produced coal kept steam in widespread use throughout the two following decades. However the ready availability of cheap oil led to new dieselisation programmes from 1955 and these began to take full effect from around 1962. Towards the end of the steam era, steam motive power was allowed to fall into a dire state of repair. The last steam-hauled service trains on the British Railways network ran in 1968, but the use of steam locomotives in British industry continued into the 1980s.^[56] In June 1975 there were still 41 locations where steam was in regular use, and many more where engines were held in reserve in case of diesel failures.^[57] Gradually, the decline of the ironstone quarries, steel, coal mining and shipbuilding industries – and the plentiful supply of redundant British Rail diesel shunters as replacements – led to the disappearance of steam power for commercial uses.^[56][57]

Several hundred rebuilt and preserved steam locomotives are still used on preserved volunteer-run 'heritage' railway lines in the UK. A proportion of the locomotives are regularly used on the national rail network by private operators where they run special excursions and touring trains. A new steam locomotive, the LNER Peppercorn Class A1 60163 Tornado has been built (began service in 2009), and more are in the planning stage.

Russia

P36-0251 — last steam passenger locomotive built in Russia. Heritage run during Expo 1520 exhibition in Scherbinka, Moscow Oblast.

In the USSR, although the first mainline diesel-electric locomotive was built in USSR in 1924, the last steam locomotive (model П36, serial number 251) was built in 1956; it is now in the Museum of Railway Machinery at former Warsaw Rail Terminal, Saint Petersburg. In the European part of the USSR, almost all steam locomotives were replaced by diesel and electric locomotives in the 1960s; in Siberia and Central Asia, state records verify that L-class 2-10-0s, and LV-class 2-10-2s were not retired until 1985. Until 1994, Russia had at least 1,000 steam locomotives stored in operable condition in case of "national emergencies".^{[58][59][60][61]}

South Africa

In South Africa, the last new locomotives purchased were 2-6-2+2-6-2 Garratts from Hunslet Taylor for the 2-foot (610 mm) gauge lines in 1968.^[62] Another class 25NC locomotive, No. 3454, nicknamed the "Blue Devil" because of its colour scheme, received modifications including a most obvious set of double side-by-side exhaust stacks. In southern Natal, two former South African Railway 2 ft (610 mm) gauge NGG16 Garratts operating on the privatised Port Shepstone and Alfred County Railway (ACR) received some L. D. Porta modifications in 1990 becoming a new NGG16A class.^[63]

By 1994 almost all commercial steam locomotives were put out of service, although many of them are preserved in museums or at railway stations for public viewing. Today only a few privately owned steam locomotives are still operating in South Africa, namely the ones being used by the 5-star luxury train Rovos Rail, and the tourist trains Outeniqua Tjoe Choo, Apple Express and (until 2008) Banana Express.

China

China continued to build mainline steam locomotives until late in the century, even building a few examples for American tourist operations. China was the last main-line user of steam locomotives, such use ending officially on the Ji-Tong line at the end of 2005. Some steam locomotives are still (2013) in use in industrial operations in China. Some coal and other mineral operations maintain an active roster of JS or SY steam locomotives bought secondhand from China Rail. The last steam locomotive built in China was 2-8-2 SY 1772, finished in 1999. As of 2011, at least six Chinese steam locomotives exist in the United States – 3 QJ's bought by RDC (Nos. 6988 and 7081 for IAIS and No. 7040 for R.J. Corman), a JS bought by the Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad, and two SYs. No. 142 (ex-#1647) is owned by the NYSW for tourist operations, re-painted and modified to represent a 1920s era U.S. locomotive; No. 58 is operated by the Valley Railroad and modified to represent New Haven Railroad number 3025.

Germany

After the Second World War, Germany was divided into the Federal Republic of Germany, with the Deutsche Bundesbahn (founded in 1949) as the new state-owned railway, and the German Democratic Republic, where railway service continued under the old pre-war name Deutsche Reichsbahn.

For a short period after the war, both Bundesbahn (DB) and Reichsbahn (DR) still placed orders for new steam locomotives. They needed to renew the rolling stock, mostly with steam locomotives designed for accelerated passenger trains. Many of the existing predecessors of those types of steam locomotives in Germany had been lost in the battles or simply reached the end of their lifetime, e.g. the famous Prussian P 8. There was no need for new freight train engines, however, because thousands of the Classes 50 and 52 had been built during the Second World War.

The VEB Lokomotivbau Karl Marx Babelsberg (LKM) built 1956 this Steam locomotive No. 991777-4. Today pulls the locomotive the Heritage railway by the Radebeul–Radeburg railway, also known as the Lößnitzgrundbahn (Lössnitzgrund Railway). The Radebeul-Radeburg railway runs between Radebeul East station and the small towns of Moritzburg and Radeburg north of Dresden.

Because the concept of the so-called "Einheitslokomotiven", the still widely used standard locomotives from the 1920s and 1930s, was already outdated in the pre-war era, a whole new design for the new steam locomotives was developed by DB and DR, called "Neubaudampflokomotiven" (new build steam locomotives). In particular the steam locomotives made by the DB in West Germany, under the guidance of Friedrich Witte, respresented the latest evolution in steam locomotive construction, including all-welded frames, high performance boilers and roller bearings on all moving parts. But although these new DB classes (10, 23, 65, 66, 82) were said to be among the finest and best performing German steam locomotives ever built, none of those machines exceeded 25 years in service. The last one, 23 105 (still preserved), went into service in 1959.

The DR in East Germany placed a similar procurement plan, but their engines were not as elaborate owing to a lack of money for new locomotives and political restrictions. The purchase of new-build steam locomotives by the DR ended in 1960. But later, during the early 1960s, the DR found a way to reconstruct older locomotives to conform with contemporary requirements. The high-speed locomotive 18 201 and the class 01.5 are some remarkable designs from that programme.

About 1960, the Bundesbahn in West Germany decided to phase out all steam-hauled trains in ten years, but still had about 5,000 of them in running condition. Even though DB were very assertive in continuing the electrification on the main lines (in 1963 they reached 5000 km of electrified routes) and dieselisation with new developed stock, they did not reach that goal. But the steam services declined more and more. In 1972, the Hamburg and Frankfurt departments of the DB rail networks became the first ones that no longer operated steam locomotives in their areas. The remaining steam locomotives began to gather in rail yards like Rheine, Tübingen, Hof, Saarbrücken, Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck and some others, which soon became well known to rail enthusiasts. In 1975, DB's last steam express train took its final run on the Emsland-Line from Rheine to Norddeich in the upper north of Germany. Two years later, on 26 October 1977, the heavy freight engine 44 903 (computer-based new number 043 903-4) made her final run at the same railway yard. After this date, no regular steam service took place on the network of the DB until their privatisation in 1994.

In East Germany, the Reichsbahn had to continue steam operation until 1988 on standard gauge because of many economic and political reasons, even though there had been strong efforts to phase out steam since the 1970s. The last locomotives in service where of the classes 50.35 and 52.80, which hauled goods trains on rural main and branch lines. Unlike with the DB, up to the very end there was never such a concentration of steam locomotives in just a few yards in the East, because throughout the DR network the infrastructure for steam locomotives remained intact until the end of the GDR in 1990. This was also the reason that there was never a real strict "final cut" at steam operations, so the DR used steam locomotives as well from time to time until they merged with the DB in 1994.

But on their narrow-gauge lines, steam locomotives continued to be used on a daily year-round basis, mainly for tourist reasons. The largest of these is the Harzer Schmalspurbahn (Harz Narrow Gauge Railways) network in the Harz Mountains, but the lines in Saxony and on the coast of the Baltic Sea are also notable. Even though every former DR narrow gauge railway has undergone privatisation, the daily steam operations are still commonplace there.

Japan

Owing to the destruction of most of the nation's infrastructure during the Second World War and the cost of electrification and dieselisation, new steam locomotives were built in Japan until 1960. The number of Japanese steam locomotives reached a peak of 5,958 in 1946.^[64]

With the booming post-war Japanese economy, steam locomotives were gradually withdrawn from main line service beginning in the early 1960s, and were replaced with diesel and electric locomotives. They were relegated to branch line and sub-main line services for several more years until the late 1960s, when electrification/dieselisation began in earnest. From 1970 onwards, steam locomotion was abolished on the JNR:

• Shikoku (April 1970)
• Kanto area (Tokyo) (October 1970),
• Kinki (Osaka, Kyoto area) (September 1973)
• Chubu (Nagoya, Nagano area) (April 1974),
• Tohoku (November 1974),
• Chugoku (Yamaguchi area) (December 1974)
• Kyushu (January 1975)
• Hokkaido (March 1976)

The last steam passenger train, pulled by a C57-class locomotive built in 1940, departed from Muroran railway station to Iwamizawa on 14 December 1975. It was then officially retired from service, dismantled and sent to the Tokyo Transportation Museum, where it was officially inaugurated as an exhibit on 14 May 1976. It was moved to the Saitama Railway Museum in early 2007. The last Japanese main line steam train, D51-241, a D51-class locomotive built in 1939, left Yubari railway station on 24 December 1975. That same day, all steam main line service ended. D51-241 was retired on 10 March 1976, and destroyed in a depot fire a month later, though a few parts were preserved.

On 2 March 1976, the final steam locomotive still operating on the JNR, 9600-39679, a 9600-class locomotive built in 1920, made its final journey from Oiwake railway station, ending 104 years of steam locomotion in Japan.^[65]

South Korea

The first steam locomotive in South Korea(Korea at the time) was the Moga (Mogul), which first ran on 9 September 1899 (Gyeong-In Line) 2-6-0, followed by Sata, Pureo, Ame, Sig, Mika (USRA Heavy Mikado), Pasi (USRA Light Pacific), Hyeogi (Narrow gauge), Class 901, Mateo, Sori and Tou. Used until 1967, the Moga is now in the Railroad Museum.^{[citation needed]}

Other countries

Reading and Northern Railroad number 425 being readied in Pennsylvania, U.S.A., for the daily tourist train in 1993.

In other countries, the dates for conversion from steam varied.

On the contiguous North American standard gauge network including Canada, Mexico and the United States, standard gauge main line steam with 1946-built 4-8-4's handling freight between Mexico City and Irapuato lasted until 1968 (Eagleson, Ziel, 1973 The Twilight of World Steam). The Mexican Pacific, a standard gauge short line in the state of Sinaloa, was reported in August 1987 (World Steam Magazine #101) to still be using steam, with a roster of one 4-6-0, two 2-6-2's and one 2-8-2.

By March 1973 in Australia, steam had vanished in all states. Diesel locomotives were more efficient and the demand for manual labour for service and repairs was less than steam. Cheap oil had cost advantages over coal.

Steam traction in New Zealand ended in 1968 in the North Island when A^B 832 (now preserved at the Glenbrook Vintage Railway, Auckland, but owned by MOTAT) hauled a Farmer's 'Santa Special' from Frankton Junction to Claudelands. Due to the inability of the new D^J class diesel locomotives to provide in-train steam heating, steam operations continued using the J and J^A class 4-8-2 tender locomotives on the overnight Christchurch-Invercargill expresses, Trains 189/190, until 1971. By this time sufficient F^S steam-heating vans were available, thus allowing the last steam locomotives to be withdrawn. Two A^B class 4-6-2 tender locomotives, A^B 778 and A^B 795, were retained at Lyttelton to steam-heat the coaches for the Boat Trains between Christchurch and Lyttelton until they were restored for the Kingston Flyer tourist train in 1972.

In Finland, the first diesels were introduced in the mid-1950s and they superseded the steam locomotives during the early '60s. The State Railways (VR) operated steam locomotives until 1975.

In Poland, on non-electrified tracks steam locomotives were superseded almost entirely by diesels by the 1990s. A few steam locomotives, however, operate still from Wolsztyn. Although they are maintained operational rather as a means of preserving railway heritage and as a tourist attraction, they do haul regular scheduled trains (mostly to Poznań). Apart from that, numerous railway museums and heritage railways (mostly narrow gauge) own steam locomotives in working condition.

In France, steam locomotives have not been used for commercial services since 24 September 1975.^[66]

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, some steam locomotives are still used for industrial purposes, for example at coal mineyard in Banovići^[67] and ArcelorMittal factory in Zenica.^[68]

In India, steam locomotives were built as late as 1972 and in use until 2000; they were replaced by a combination of diesel and electric locomotives. A steam locomotive celebration run was organised between Thane and Mumbai to commemorate the 150th year of railways in India.

In Sri Lanka, one steam locomotive is maintained for private service to power the Viceroy Special.

B 5112 before being reactivated in Ambarawa Railway Museum, Indonesia

Indonesia also has experience with steam locomotives since 1876. The last batch of E10 0-10-0 rack tank locomotives were purchased as late as 1967 (Kautzor, 2010) from Nippon Sharyo. The last locomotives – manufactured by Krupp, Germany, D 52 class, in 1954 – operated until 1994. In 1994 they were replaced by diesel locomotives. Indonesia also purchased the last batch of mallet locomotives from Nippon Sharyo, to be used in the Aceh Railway. In Sumatra Barat (West Sumatra) and Ambarawa we can find the rack railway track train (with maximum elevated 6% in mountainous area), now operated for tourism only. There are two museums, Taman Mini and Ambarawa (Ambarawa Railway Museum).^[69]

Pakistan still has a regular steam locomotive service; a line operates in the North-West Frontier Province and Sindh; It has been preserved as a "nostalgia" service for tourism in exotic locales,^[70] indeed it is specifically advertised as being for "steam buffs".^[70]

Revival

Er 774 38 0-10-0 on Steam Special Train in Moscow 11 July 2010

60163 Tornado, a new express locomotive built for the British main line, completed in 2008

Dramatic increases in the cost of diesel fuel prompted several initiatives to revive steam power.^[71][72] However none of these has progressed to the point of production and, in the early 21st century, steam locomotives operate only in a few isolated regions of the world and in tourist operations. In Germany, a small number of fireless steam locomotives are still working in industrial service, e.g., at power stations, where an on-site supply of steam is readily available.

The Swiss company Dampflokomotiv- und Maschinenfabrik DLM AG delivered eight steam locomotives to rack railways in Switzerland and Austria between 1992 and 1996. Four of them are now the main means of traction on the Brienz Rothorn Bahn; the four others were for the Schafbergbahn in Austria, where they run 90% of the trains.

The same company rebuilt a German 2-10-0 locomotive to new standards with modifications such as roller bearings, light oil firing and boiler insulation.^[73]

Steam locomotive built by Beyer Peacock 2-6-0 Class type "N3" No. 120 of 1910. The photo shows the locomotive carrying a passenger tourist train in Uruguay in March 2013. The tour includes a visit to the railway museum in the village of Peñarol. It was recovered by an association called Uruguayan Association of Friends of the Rail (AUAR its Spanish acronym).

Several heritage railways in the UK have built new steam locomotives in the 1990s and early 21st century. These include the narrow gauge Ffestiniog and Corris railways in Wales. The Hunslet Engine Company was revived in 2005 and is now building steam locomotives on a commercial basis.^[74] A standard gauge LNER Peppercorn Pacific "Tornado" was completed at Hopetown Works, Darlington, England and made its first run on 1 August 2008.^[75][76] It entered main line service later in 2008, to great public acclaim. Demonstration trips in France and Germany have been planned.^[77] As of 2009 over half-a-dozen projects to build working replicas of extinct steam engines are going ahead, in many cases using existing parts from other types to build them. Examples include BR Class 6MT Hengist ,^[78] BR Class 3MT no. 82045, BR Class 2MT no. 84030,^[79] Brighton Atlantic Beachy Head ,^[80] the LMS "Patriot 45551 The Unknown Warrior" project, GWR "47xx 4709, BR "Class 6 72010 Hengist, GWR "Saint" 2999 Lady of Legend, 1014 "County" of Glamorgan and 6880 Betton "Grange" projects.

South African Class 26, the Red Devil

In 1980 American financier Ross Rowland established American Coal Enterprises to develop a modernised coal-fired steam locomotive. His ACE 3000 concept attracted considerable attention, but never materialised.^[81][82]

In 1998, in his book The Red Devil and Other Tales from the Age of Steam,^[83] David Wardale put forward the concept of a high speed, high efficiency "Super Class 5 4-6-0" locomotive for future steam haulage of tour trains on British main lines. The idea was formalised in 2001 by the formation of 5AT Project dedicated to developing and building the 5AT Advanced Technology Steam Locomotive, but it never received any major railway backing.

Locations where new builds are taking place include:^{[citation needed]}

• GWR 1014 County of Glamorgan & GWR 2999 Lady of Legend, Both being built at Didcot Railway Centre.
• GWR 6880 Betton Grange, GWR 4709 & LMS 45551 The Unknown Warrior, All being built at Llangollen Railway.
• BR 72010 Hengist, Great Central Railway.
• BR 82045, Severn Valley Railway.
• BR 84030 & LBSCR 32424 Beachy Head, Both being built at Bluebell Railway.
• MS&LR/GCR 567, Ruddington Great Central Railway, Northern Section.
• VR V499, Victoria, Australia.

In 2012, the Coalition for Sustainable Rail^[84] project was started in the USA with the goal of creating a higher speed, modern steam locomotive incorporating all the improvements proposed for steam locomotion by Livio Dante Porta and others, but using torrefied biomass as solid fuel. The fuel has been recently developed by the University of Minnesota and the project is a collaboration between the university's Institute on the Environment (IonE) and Sustainable Rail International (SRI), an organisation set up to explore the use of steam traction in a modern railway setup. The group have received the last surviving (but non-running) ATSF 3460 class steam locomotive (#3463) via donation from its owner in Kansas, the Great Overland Station Museum, and intend to use it as a platform for developing "the world’s cleanest, most powerful passenger locomotive" (sic) capable of speeds up to 130 mph. Named Project 130, it aims to break the world steam train speed record set by LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard in the UK at 126 mph. However, any demonstration of the project's claims is yet to be seen.

Steam locomotives in popular culture

Over the years, steam locomotives have become a very popular image in representations of trains. Many toy trains based on steam locomotives are made, thereby making the image iconic with trains to children. Their popularity has led to steam locomotives being portrayed in fictional works about trains, most notably The Railway Series by the Rev W. V. Awdry and The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper. Steam locomotives have also been "stars" in many television shows about trains, such as Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, based on characters from the books by Awdry.

There is also the Hogwarts Express from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, which in the films is portrayed by the GWR 4900 Class 5972 Olton Hall steam engine in special Hogwarts livery. The Hogwarts Express is so popular in its own right that it is an attraction at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter section of the Universal Studios Islands of Adventure amusement park in Florida.

Coins

The Biedermeier Period coin featuring a steam locomotive

The state quarter representing Utah, depicting the golden spike ceremony

Steam locomotives are a main topic for numerous collectors and bullion coins.

The 1950 Silver 5 Peso coin of Mexico has a steam locomotive on its reverse as the prominent feature.

The recent 20 euro Biedermeier Period coin, minted 11 June 2003, shows on the obverse an early model steam locomotive (the AJAX) on Austria's first railway line, the Kaiser Ferdinand's Nordbahn. The AJAX can still be seen today in the Austrian Railway Museum.

As part of the 50 State Quarters program, the quarter representing the U.S. state of Utah depicts the ceremony where the two halves of the First Transcontinental Railroad met at Promontory Summit in 1869. The coin recreates a popular image from the ceremony with steam locomotives from each company facing each other while the golden spike is being driven.